Watch How This 1000-Bloom Mega Flower Was Grown [Manvsnature]

This is a single Chrysanthemum with 991 blooms, measuring 11 feet in diamater. It's the largest plant of its type ever grown in North America. Here's how a master horticulturalist and a metal fabricator teamed up to make it happen.

Gigantic mutant flowers don't just grow themselves. This one was crafted by master grower Yoko Arakawa and metal worker Dave Beck using a challenging Japanese technique called Ozukuri:

The rigorous, 18-month growing technique involves meticulous watering, pinching and tying of the chrysanthemum to a customized wire frame to train the plant to grow into the desired form. The blooms are painstakingly arranged in a dome shape, with the goal of achieving as many uniform blooms as possible.

Only a few growers in the entire world today are skilled in the techniques of training a Thousand Bloom.

The horticultural feat is on display at this year's Longwood Gardens' Chrysanthemum Festival in Kennett Square, PA, running through November 21. After that it will become sentient, unroot itself from its correspondingly large stand, and viciously devour everything in its path. [Longwood Gardens via Core77

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Confirmed: China's Supercomputer Really Did Kick Our Asses [Supercomputers]

The super-duper list of the world's 500 supercomputers has been published, and as the Chinese boasted last month, their Tianhe-1A supercomputer is the most powerful. Those 7,168 Nvidia GPUs and 14,336 Intel CPUs must be working hard. [BBC]

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Panasonic's 103-Inch Plasma TV Goes 3D [3dTv]

After falling in price to "just" $50,000 last year, Panasonic's five-year-old plasma has been updated with 3D technology. The TH-P103MT2 will sell for the equivalent of $101,900 in Japan—not including installation, naturally. [AkihabaraNews]

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How To Hack Kinect [XBox360]

You've seen the kind of cool stuff people can get up to when they hack their Kinect. Now you can too, with this simple rather complex guide.

Adafruit, the team behind the recent "bounty" on hacking Microsoft's new motion-sensing peripheral, have posted an in-depth and incredibly technical guide on how to get the camera doing your bidding rather than Microsoft's.

Be warned when we say it's technical: this is not the kind of thing your average person, comfortable with a console dashboard and Firefox, could pull off. But if you fancy yourself as a bit of a whizz with computer code, have at it! And if you get some cool stuff working, be sure to let us know.

DIY Kinect Hacking [adafruit]

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Google's Boutiques.com Website and iPad App Launches [Google]

As we told you two days ago, Google's launched Boutiques.com—a fashion site (and app!) based on Like.com's image-recognition technology following their acquisition. It's very much For Women Only (unless you're buying!), but great for Google. [Boutiques via GoogleBlog]

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Boxee Box review

It's a little strange that the Boxee Box by D-Link feels like a late entrant in this year's crowded smart TV market -- the core Boxee software has been around forever, and the Box itself was announced way back in January at CES. But a platform switch from NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip to Intel's Atom-based CE4100 platform cost Boxee and D-Link valuable time, while the Boxee software went through a dramatic UI transformation from the beta to 1.0. What's more, Boxee's gone from being an upstart rock'n'roll rebel to a legit market player, with a Netflix deal on the books and -- wonder of wonders -- an agreement to bring Hulu Plus to the Boxee Box sometime next year. That's a lot of changes, and, quite frankly, a lot of hype -- Boxee's dedicated fans are expecting the small company and its asymmetrical Box to show up no less than Apple and Google. So have Boxee CEO Avner Ronen and company pulled it off? Is the Boxee Box the ultimate connected TV device? Or has a punk rock media revolution turned into just another polite New Wave streamer? Read on for the full Engadget review to find out!

Gallery: Boxee Box unboxing and hands-on

Continue reading Boxee Box review

Boxee Box review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors: Samsung Nexus S using fancy curved display Sprint had to pass on, HTC EVO Shift 4G is the Knight?

We've been fed some information by an established tipster today that paints an interesting picture of what sort of Android gear Sprint will -- and won't -- be getting next. First, we're told that the EVO Shift 4G trademark HTC recently filed for is the device known as the Knight, a downsized EVO 4G with a four-row sliding keyboard and a larger battery. Interestingly, as far as our tipster knows, the front-facing camera is off the table -- but in light of all the buzz around video calling these days, we wouldn't be surprised if it had been added back.

Perhaps more interesting, though, is some buzz around the display on the Nexus S. You might remember that we noticed it's concave on the front during its brief reveal at the Web 2.0 summit yesterday, an extraordinarily unusual design element for a full-touch phone. Well, our tipster tells us Samsung's been shopping this curved display technology to carriers for a while -- as early as CES at the beginning of this year behind closed doors -- claiming that its research showed such a design improved perceived usability over a perfectly flat display. Sprint bought the line and wanted to get a curved-display model on shelves in time for the holidays this year, but Sammy was apparently unable to deliver product in the volume it was asking for... so that's where the Nexus S might come into play; seems the Google-branded model could be the first to ship with it. We're unconvinced that it'd be any better, but our judgment is fully reserved until we've got a device in our hands -- which hopefully happens sooner rather than later.

[Image via xda-developers]

Note: Commenters are pointing out that the Dell Venue Pro also has a curved display, but it's a different situation -- that's longitudinally convex glass over a flat display. Here, it's laterally concave -- though we don't know whether the underlying AMOLED component is curved or not.

Rumors: Samsung Nexus S using fancy curved display Sprint had to pass on, HTC EVO Shift 4G is the Knight? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Griffin gets in the iPod nano watch game with colorful, protective Slap wristband

Find some of the current iPod nano watch options a bit too subdued for your style? Then you might want to consider Griffin's new Slap wristband, which looks to be among the most protective and colorful options to date. Made entirely of a soft silicone, the Slap is available in no less than eight different colors, and it completely encloses your iPod nano (save for the headphone jack) but promises to still let you control the volume and sleep / wake buttons through the case. Still no word on a release date, but you can expect this one to set you back the same $25 that most other similar wristbands seem to be going for.

Griffin gets in the iPod nano watch game with colorful, protective Slap wristband originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba's newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use

It doesn't look like Toshiba's going to put an end to its awkward hard drive naming convention anytime soon, but at least we can call the new MK1060GSCX the "24/7 durable one." The 100GB, 2.5-inch SATA HDD is designed for "rugged operating environments" and continuous 24-hour operation. Obviously, Tosh has put this guy through the ringer -- it claims that the drive can withstand -15 to +70 degrees Celsius as well as operate at expanded altitudes. The sacrifice you make for that, however, is in speed -- the 4,200rpm drive has a 12msec seek time and 1.5Gbit/s interface speed. Of course, if you're looking for something faster -- one of Intel's latest X25-M SSDs would run circles around that. Toshiba will also offer an even smaller 80GB MK8050GACY version with a PATA interface. No word on pricing, but Toshiba expects the new drives to hit sometime in December -- hit the break for the full spec breakdown and press release.

Continue reading Toshiba's newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use

Toshiba's newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel learns from Dr. Dre, wants Atom chips in NFL helmets to know when heads are ringing

We always understood that Intel looked after the rock stars of tomorrow, but who knew that included football players? Yup, according to PC World, Intel is currently investigating adding Atom chips inside NFL helmets to provide real-time impact data to medical staff on the sidelines. While there's no explicit time frame set for this project, we're thinking the sooner the better -- lest we forget it took the league until 2009 to require players who display signs of a concussion to stop playing for at least one day. This isn't the first time though that the world's largest chip maker has actually helped make the gridiron safer. In fact, it previously worked with helmet maker Riddell's fittingly named HITS (Head Impact Telemetry System) and academic researchers to run head injury simulations using linked Xeon-powered computers. Off the field, Intel is also currently partnering with the Mayo Clinic to boost medical cranial scans using MIC (Many Integrated Core) supercomputer co-processors. Codenamed Knights Corner, this hardware puts teacher's pets to shame by running trillions of calculations per second, and apparently accelerates head scans by up to 18 times. Sure, safety's all well and good, but we know Intel's really just curious about how Moore's Law holds up to the shoulder pressure of NFL d-backs.

Intel learns from Dr. Dre, wants Atom chips in NFL helmets to know when heads are ringing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony teases us with NXCAM HD concept Super 35mm camcorder, strictly for the pros (video)

It's a Super 35mm world, and we're all just trying to fit in frame. At least, it will be once Sony's done expanding its lineup of cinematic shooters. Last week it was the "affordable" PMW-F3, and now the company is teasing the NXCAM HD, a decidedly professional-oriented camcorder with a Super 35mm equivalent large format CMOS sensor nestled behind an E-mount interchangeable lens system. It'll record to AVCHD in 1080p at frame rates covering all the majors: 23.98, 29.97, and 59.94, along with 25 and 50. All progressive, natch. Sony is planning to release this boxy beast in the middle of 2011 and plans to make it "affordable" for professionals as well. See what good a little competition can do?

[Thanks, Demetri]

Continue reading Sony teases us with NXCAM HD concept Super 35mm camcorder, strictly for the pros (video)

Sony teases us with NXCAM HD concept Super 35mm camcorder, strictly for the pros (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 07:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Griffin's iPod Nano Slap Bracelet Has the Early '90s Totally Confused [IpodNano]

What's that, 2010? I mean, no, I'm not at all surprised that the slap bracelet is still around, but you say that there's a miniature computer attached to the thing? Does it run CompuServe?

Now let's see what's going on here. Griffin's combined cutting edge silly—a silver dollar sized MP3 player with a comically small touch screen—with retro silly—an accessory you put on by whacking yourself with it—to come up with the retro-future silly: a slap bracelet watchband for the new iPod Nano. They call it Slap. Like what your girlfriend would try to do to you if you gave her one of these as a gift, or what I did to my knee after I saw the announcement for this product.

OK, that's being unfair. The iPod Nano Watch has been an idea we've all loved to make fun of but also secretly kind of actually just loved since the tiny new Nano was debuted in September. And as far as Nano watch bands go, this looks to be the slickest one yet.

They're available in Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Black, Orange, Yellow, and Pink and run $25 (£20 in the UK). I'd buy one but I'm already using my Nano as a slammer for my Pogs. [Griffin]

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NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro

For most Mac users, upgradeable anything is starting to sound like a distant memory, but Mac Pro users bought that big ol' box for a reason: expandability. Now NVIDIA is here to make it worth their while, releasing the mid-range Quadro 4000 graphics card with that latest / greatest Fermi architecture. With 256 CUDA cores and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the card should slice through just about anything a pro app (Photoshop, Maya, Snood) can send it, and probably wouldn't mind popping out a FPS session now and then just to stretch the legs. Of course, when we say "mid-range" we aren't talking cheap: NVIDIA's MSRP is $1,199, a good bit more than the card's $700-ish PC-compatible counterpart. It should be available this month.

Continue reading NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro

NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam

Mimo Monitors isn't exactly short on small USB monitors these days, but that hasn't stopped it from rolling out yet another new model: the 9-inch iMo eye9. As with some of the company's recent models, this one is a touchscreen monitor (resistive, as you might expect), but it takes things one step further than the rest by adding a less-than-discreet 1.3 megapixel webcam. Otherwise, you'll get a basic 1,024 x 600 resolution, plus full Mac and PC compatibility, a detachable base that allows for both portrait and landscape viewing, and a built-in stylus that will also double as a stand. Look for this one to start shipping on November 20th, and you can get youpre-order in now for $229.99.

Continue reading Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam

Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry PlayBook has a 'module cavity,' hints at NFC capabilities

He unfortunately didn't have one on hand (or at least on stage), but RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie did make a bit of news about the BlackBerry PlayBook at the now-happening Web 2.0 Summit. The first is that the tablet packs what Balsillie described as a "module cavity" -- the most obvious use for which would be to add WWAN capabilities to the WiFi-only model (something Balsillie himself suggested), although the possibilities certainly extend far beyond that. Balsillie also later mused a bit about NFC capabilities, stating that "we'd be fools not to have it in the near-term, and we are not fools." That's obviously in relation to BlackBerry phones in general and not just the PlayBook, but it does seem like a prime candidate for that aforementioned "module cavity," which we really hope is not the final name.

Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry PlayBook has a 'module cavity,' hints at NFC capabilities originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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